BIONICLE Canisters 1 - Technic Bionicle, the Mata Nui Era

To Celebrate the 10th year of Bionicle products (and its end), I'll be doing my own classification of the Bionicle sets instead of the official sources, making it easier to see their history through the years. This list shows one set per Canister series, featuring each different construction or design style. The Canister included in this list are from 2001-2003. Although there were practically three different forms of construction (Toa, Bohrok and Rahkshi), they share common characteristics to be in the same list, as all of them included functions to moves limbs (or head, in the case of the Bohrok and Bohrok-Kal) through gears in their construction; included parts with obviously Technic design, then granting a good construction and great functionality to those sets and their content (technic-based pieces) and had partial limitation with Balljoint articulations. Check the GUIDE to Technic Action Figures: http://www.brickset.com/brickLists/?2583

Their body piece included some likeness from the body piece of their predecessors (Throwbots/Slizers), though it was an entire piece with addition of many Technic pieces and gears. The limbs were connected to the body through simple Technic axles connected to "hand" pieces.

The functions were manual, and could be controlled through a bigger Gear located in the back of the set's body.

Pohatu was my choice to represent his series of canister as his construction has a major difference among the other Toa Mata sets: His body is built in the inverse form, making him the smaller of the Toa Mata (or at the same size of the set 8532 - Onua), though it required more pieces to complete him (he has a total of 49 pieces, including a brown Lego System Rock).

The differences in the playability are: Through gear functions, he moves one of his legs instead of an arm. He has no weapon to make the masks of the Rahi fall, but he uses his feet additions to kick the ball into them.

Their body consisted in two halves with another kind of gears in the middle of it. The Gears sustains the halves that forms the head of the Bohrok. They were (alongside with Bohrok Va sets) the first ones to introduce the pieces of their eyes (used too much in recent Technic sets).

They were shorter than any Toa, as both their limbs and body were smaller. However, their head was bigger, to fit in the body in a way to make possible a head attack, while pulling a certain piece on its back.This function also served to throw the krana (a rubber mask) out from the head of the bohrok.

Besides the head attack or the action to launch Krana, each Bohrok can shift into a sphere form. The head cannot move forward while in sphere form. The shields also covered the sides of the set.The Canister also gave the possibility to keep the set connected to it while inside it.

Tahnok was my choice to represent his series of canister because he was very iconic during the release of the sets.

The construction of the Toa Nuva are almost the same as the first toa sets. Major differences are a new sort with new kinds of limbs, and addition of silver armors and weapons. The masks also got a lot more of detail. The armors covered the shoulders and the chest. It is also important to note that there are no more adjacent technic axles, pins or balljoints included in the construction of those sets.

As the construction remained similar, the functions of the gears did it as well. Although that, the weapons were interestingly designed to serve differently purposes besides weapons. They could be used in other ways when attached to the feet of the sets, making a board to Tahu, for example.

Onua Nuva was my choice to represent his series of canister because he included a different posture and he also included Bohrok arms, a significant reduction of his arms compared to his first version (which reference code is 8532).

The Bohrok-kal sets are refered many times as "clone sets" of the bohrok, though it is more likely to call them as an addition to the Bohrok theme, as they have an inverse color scheme, brand-new shields and armor-looking head (which don't show the krana inside it).

The silver present in their head, shields, feet and even connectors (the hand pieces) influenced a lot the whole Bionicle theme after it. It is also a common characteristic to share with the Toa Nuva, their enemies. The inverse color schemes represent even better their exclusive powers.

Lehvak-Kal was my choice to represent his series of canister because his shields are the most different of all the Bohrok (they are claws), and this set is my personal favorite over the Bohrok-kal.

Their body consisted in many pieces for its basis. There were like two basis for the torso, and like three others to connect the head and spine while covering the Kraata (rubber vermin-like creatures).

After completed the body, they features a very cool serpentine design, with exclusive spines for each set. Although there is some complexity to the construction of the set, there is just a gear that make the limbs work together to move the spear (that included exclusive blades as well), as the main piece of the chest already has spiked parts to react with the gear.

The legs were very innovative at that time: They had extra armors to connect the lower part of the leg into the upper one, without the need of a dual-side connector.

The low sector part of the leg is used repeatedly in sets nowadays, as they offer a great playability. They included feet with the same system of the throwbots' feet. Its mold was used many times since its invention. For those and many other reasons, the Rahkshi are some of the greatest sets ever.

Guurahk was my choice to represent his series of canister as his spears are over-used nowadays. His spine (which always reminds me water) was also used in a viking set, and it fit very well indeed. Who knows? Maybe with those new Atlantis sets, we might see the spines coming back.

Although their building was practically the same, there are reasons to this. They might not have been modificated in the final product as the common pieces and colors fit very well in the combo models which were designed for them:Rahkshi kaita Vo (8587, 8590, 8591) - A genuine Bionicle centaurRahkshi kaita Za (8588, 8589, 8592) - Another style of warrior

Their color scheme was based in sand like colors with the older scheme of gray, which isn't used since 2004.